A Gathering

Wow. What a day. And it went fine. In fact, it was lovely although I sort of had to hide out a few times and collect myself but Hank and Rachel did all of the work. They got here at noon and Rachel spent the next three hours making pasta salad and cherry and almond buckle and smoked mullet dip. Hank helped with vegetable chopping and mullet deboning and anything else his girl needed and I went and watched Parts Unknown. 
And I got to see people whom I love and adore and have known forever. Not just Taylor and Paul but also Anna (who is moving in about a week too) and Billy and Shayla and Waylon and Billy's mama and Togi and Lily and her three young'uns came and our dear friend Joanna and her soon-to-be-wife whom I felt as if I had met before but had not and there were new-to-me people who were very nice and one guy who brought curried potato salad and I will remember that curried potato salad on my deathbed. It was so good.
So it really was a good afternoon and Mr. Moon worked hard on his bathroom and then he had the guys help him move the vanity/desk thing which inspired this whole project from the hallway to the bathroom.

The mirror and little side cabinets will all be hung on the wall above the vanity and you can see the sink there which is he is going to use. The mirror will be tall enough for him and won't that be beautiful? My man will not have to bend down to comb his hair. 

And...the toilet was installed. 

A toilet! A real bathroom! Right now he's gone to town to pick up a line of some sort that he needs and please don't ask me what sort of line it is and he swears that before he goes to bed tonight he is going to flush that toilet. 

I am so impressed. 

It's just a jewelbox bathroom. 

And so it went. 

When it came time to say goodbye to Taylor and to Anna I cried. Taylor has been a part of our family for almost twenty years and Anna has spent nine Thanksgivings with us. 

Taylor grew up in our family and Anna has gotten her masters degree and her PhD and gone through all sorts of difficult things and come out strong since we met her. Taylor began cooking this and that when she was living with Hank and now is a real true restaurant cook and I am sure that Houston is going to welcome her skills. She is a damn hard worker and she has a talent and all of the skills to take her to where she needs to be. 

Ay. 

This is the way life goes. And I wish Taylor and Paul and Anna, too, the very best. Health and happiness and love and fulfilling work. And I am grateful to Hank for bringing so many absolutely beautiful people into our lives, our hearts, our family. 

He has a talent for that, my boy. 

He has real good taste in friends. 

And now he and Rachel are about to move into a place of their own and that's another new chapter in the life of us. 

In not-very-related news I had to apologize to Gibson today. It would appear that someone actually DID crash a car through Gabe's wall. Gabe wasn't there, thank goodness, but it happened. And he not only got a new bed, he and his mama got a whole new apartment. 

Whoa!

So I told Gibson that I apologized and that I should have believed him. 

I told him that MerMer is definitely not always right. Mostly. But not always. 

He blew it off in his Gibson gracious way. 

"It's okay!" he said. 

He's a gentleman, my grandson is. 

Phew. 

And by the way- my mango cake looked like one of those Pinterest Fails compared to the cake that Glenn in Roseland made for me but it tasted amazing because...mangos! And whipped cream. 

But mostly mangos. 

Every bite I take of them is like a time machine for my soul. 

If there is anything better than a cold, sweet mango, bitten into and sucked into the mouth, I don't know what it is. 

I think I better start another Roseland mango plant to go with the one I've been growing forever. I do love to start a plant from a seed. 

Another Sunday, come and gone. 

How was yours? 

Love...Ms. Moon